"Jack Loftus never heard that whisper, nor even dreamed of it. Nor did his great-great-grandchildren. But he already had more than enough reasons for joy."
-James Blish, Mission To The Heart Stars (London, 1980), CHAPTER ELEVEN, p. 127.
The novel, already set in our future, moves forward three generations in its second last sentence. What kind of world will Jack's great-great-grandchildren live in?
Newly promoted within the Service, Jo Faber is told that his first new assignment will be as easy as any previous one. He must find the cabdriver who had guessed that the Service has time travel because this brings him:
"'...uncomfortably close to the truth...The Service is about to take in a new raw recruit!'"
-James Blish, The Quincunx Of Time (New York, 1983), AN EPILOGUE, p. 110.
The other two branches are darker:
"...ahead the galactic night was black as death."
-James Blish, "This Earth of Hours" IN Blish, The Best Of James Blish, Ed. Robert A.W. Lowndes (New York, 1979), pp. 257-280 AT V, p. 280.
"...they had left him alone with his God and his grief."
-James Blish, A Case Of Conscience IN Blish, After Such Knowledge (London, 1991), pp. 523-730 AT XVIII, p. 723.
But the optimisms transcends the darknesses.
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